None of Us Are Free

Artist

Ray Charles

Album

My World

Genre

Rhythm and Blues (R&B)

"None of Us Are Free" was written in 1993 by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Brenda Russell. The first recording was by [[ray-charles]], for his album My World, released in 1993 on Warner Bros. and produced by Richard Perry. Co-writer Brenda Russell also performed on the album. On My World, "None of Us Are Free" was received as the record's central message song. A Jet feature (May 3, 1993) counted it among five "socially-conscious songs on the album" and described it as "a piece that talks about the need for all people to get to know each other," quoting Charles: "when I was doing this album I wasn't trying to create an overall message. It just turned out that we got some songs that had something to say." In Billboard (March 6, 1993), Timothy White called it "a hard-rolling exhortation ... that deserves to be a multiformat radio anthem for these morally faltering times." In Ebony (June 1993), Lynn Norment wrote that the song "delivered pertinent social messages." Charles's biographer Mike Evans, in 2009, called it "the main 'message' song on the album." Charles's recording drew relatively little attention at release; the album peaked at No. 145 on the Billboard 200. The song reached a wider audience through Solomon Burke's 2002 recording on Don't Give Up On Me, which featured The Blind Boys of Alabama on backing vocals. Ray Charles (d. 2004-06-10) and Solomon Burke (d. 2010-10-10) are both credited artists in the WBP archive; the song passes from one to the other.